Frustration For Georgians Still Without Power After Irma

ATLANTA, GA — Even as normalcy returned for many on a sunny day in Georgia, frustrations were mounting Wednesday for the hundreds of thousands of people still without power after Hurricane Irma.

After making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, Irma blew through much of Georgia as a tropical storm on Monday, downing trees and power lines, flooding coastal communities and other low-lying areas and knocking out power for more than 1 million residents. Four deaths in Georgia have been associated with the storm — two of them directly and two caused when a woman and her baby, who had evacuated Florida, were killed in a car wreck.

The storm also killed at least 13 people in Florida, for a sad tally of 57 in the U.S., Caribbean and Cuba.

Watch: Hurricane Irma's Destructive Journey By The Numbers

More than 450,000 Georgians still were without power Wednesday afternoon after the storm. That's down from almost 1.5 million at Monday's peak. But that was little comfort for those still in the dark.

Many of those still impacted took to social media to both air their grievances and try to get the attention of electricity companies.

"Still out of power going on 4 days," wrote one Twitter user. "Where are u GA Power???"

She was hardly alone.

Georgia Power said about 277,000 customers still were without electricity by 4 p.m. Wednesday. Many of those outages were in metro Atlanta, coastal communities around Savannah and Brunswick, and in middle Georgia in and around Macon. Georgia EMC, which represents the state's electrical membership cooperatives, reported another 175,000 people without power Wednesday morning. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

By noon Wednesday, Georgia Power said its teams, working around the clock, had restored electricity to more than 620,000 customers throughout the state. In a news release, the company said 95 percent of customers impacted by Irma should have their power back on by Sunday night, except in cases where homes are too damaged to receive power.

By Wednesday morning, the weather system that had once been Irma had fizzled as it moved through Kentucky and into Illinois. The National Hurricane Center was no longer tracking its progress — turning an eye, instead, to Hurricane Jose, which is spinning around in the Atlantic between the Bahamas and Bermuda as a Category 1 storm.

Tuesday afternoon, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal lifted the evacuation order that had remained for six coastal Georgia counties even as other south Georgians were allowed to return home. That order contributed to a a mass migration south on Georgia's roadways, after what officials have described at the largest evacuation in U.S. history from Florida and south Georgia.

Deal's office announced Wednesday that he plans to survey storm damage in coastal Georgia on Thursday. Deal will fly out of Habersham County airport to Brunswick, where he will hold a press availability a 1 p.m.

State Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens himself planned to tour Camden and Glynn counties on Wednesday — two coastal areas hit hard by the storm. He'll be assessing damage caused by the deadly storm and meeting with residents, local government leaders and state elected officials.

The commissioner's office said that anyone with questions about an insurance claim may call the Consumer Services Hotline toll-free at 1-800-656-2298. Phone lines are open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Consumers may also visit the department online to submit questions or complaints.

Read: Home Damaged By Hurricane Irma? Don't Get Scammed

As evacuee traffic continued pouring out of metro Atlanta, most major roadways had gotten the OK from state Department of Transportation inspection teams. But, especially in storm-soaked south Georgia, there were some limitations.

Wednesday morning, exits off of Interstate 95 from Camden County to the Florida state line were closed, with officials in the community saying there are no resources, including gas, lodging and, in many cases electricity, available to the legions of motorists heading back to Florida. Several exits to Glynn County, around Brunswick, also were closed due to unsafe road conditions.

On Tuesday, fuel outages were being reported at some gas stations, as heavy demand merged with difficulty the stations were having getting refueled during and after the storm. The outages were most prevalent in metro Atlanta and along the Peach State's interstates running toward Florida.

According to the website GasBuddy, most stations in the Atlanta area were fully refueled by Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, one of the main highways that connects Florida to the rest of the country is in danger of being closed due to flooding caused by Hurricane Irma.

Per the Associated Press, the Santa Fe River in north central Florida, which runs under Interstate 75, has rapidly risen over the past two days. Florida transportation fficials say the water will likely rise further in the coming days.

The bridge that crosses the river is just north of Gainesville, the home to the University of Florida. If the highway is closed it would require major detours for those trying to return to the state.

In sad news emerging Wednesday, a woman who had evacuated to Georgia from Florida died, days after her three-month-old baby. Kaitlin Hunt, and her daughter Riley, had been hit by a teen driver in downtown Woodstock.

Also killed in the storm was Nancy Easton, 67, of Cumming. Eason, a retired court reporter and wife of Cumming's former police chief, was a passenger in a vehicle that was hit by a falling tree in a driveway Monday.

Elsewhere Wednesday, an elderly couple that had been missing since Saturday, after they were evacuated from Florida in advance of Irma, were found safe. The couple's credit cards had reportedly been used in Georgia, but they were found in their hometown of Venice, Florida.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
Lots of charities and organizations are offering assistance in many forms to the victims of Irma. Find the one you'd most like to donate to and give what you can. Here are some highly-rated organizations helping with Irma. There are tons more on Charity Navigator.

• Team Rubicon
• American Red Cross
• All Hands
• Americares
• South Florida Wildlife Center
• Brigid's Crossing Foundation
• Global Giving
• Save the Children
• UNICEF USA

Photo courtesy Georgia Department of Transportation